Hundreds of helmeted police swarmed the site of a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of California at Los Angeles early on Thursday, firing flash bangs, arresting defiant demonstrators and dismantling their encampment.

The pre-dawn police crackdown at UCLA marked the latest flashpoint in mounting tensions on U.S. college campuses, where protests over Israel’s war in Gaza have led to student clashes with each other and with law enforcement.

“I’m a student here. I’m an English major,” one student said to television cameras, as police dragged him away. “Please don’t fail us. Don’t fail us.”

Live TV footage showed officers taking down tents, tearing apart barricades and removing the encampment, while arrested protesters sat with their hands restrained behind their backs with zip-ties.

  • @[email protected]
    83•7 months ago

    i cannot believe they think we are stupid enough to accept that shooting rubber bullets at unarmed student protestors on public property is justified and morally correct.

    paternalistic bullshit like that breeds hatred and contempt; they are making their own enemies in order to justify more crackdowns, and more fascist behavior.

    it’s dark, but it will pass. i hope for the better.

    • @Arbiter
      23•7 months ago

      It won’t pass on its own though, collective political action is required to make it pass.

    • @Anti_Iridium
      16•7 months ago

      It especially pisses me off that they aren’t even using them correctly.

      They are not direct fire, you’re supposed to bounce them off the ground.

      • @Madison420
        3•7 months ago

        It receives federal funds so yes in a limited way it is. Doesn’t matter though because they have rights as a paying customer redressing both the government and their school.

      • @[email protected]
        2•7 months ago

        Public property as we knew it in the 60’s has been completely privatised. Our legal system definitions of public spaces haven’t caught up with the modern reality of these spaces so let’s not defend police brutality with this “was it REALLY a public space” semantic bullshit.